


Artificial

by Liarles



Category: Persona 5
Genre: (if you don't know this genre - it's something like SAO but without harem), Alternate Universe - No Personas (Persona Series), F/F, LitRPG, M/M, MMORPGs, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, Slow Burn, Virtual Reality, so basically I asked my friend which pairings to choose and she said everyone is gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26236672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liarles/pseuds/Liarles
Summary: A beautiful new world of endless possibilities, an MMORPG in Virtual Reality unlike any you have seen: Metaverse. The advanced AI of our NPCs and ultra-realistic graphics will quickly make you forget the difference between the two worlds. Who knows? You might like it so much, you wouldn't even want to return! Just kidding.Pressured by Futaba, unable to stop boasting about the world her mother helped to create, and Ryuji, exited to no end about a game where you can learn, train and, with enough patience, earn money while simultaneously having fun, Ren dives into the world of freshly-released Metaverse. But it's never that easy, and soon enough the clan of misfits "Phantoms" is ready to unveil the darker secrets of this almost terrifyingly realistic world.The handsome young detective Akechi Goro, who recently started his own video blog, is the biggest advertisement for the game. Everyone loves idols, right? And who cares, if some of his cases are beneficial for Shido Corp.? And who cares, if he plays a bit unfair when the recording stops? With unwavering determination, he is ready to sacrifice his all for his only goal. The only "feeling" he needs is the satisfaction of winning over Him, anyway.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Niijima Makoto/Okumura Haru, Suzui Shiho/Takamaki Ann, could be more? not sure yet
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	1. Prologue. Welcome to the dream.

Bright rays of sunlight were bravely seeping through windows of the cozy backstreet café, attempting to interrupt the sound sleep of its only current resident. Unfortunately for them, the chaotic mess of hair was securely protecting the boy’s eyes, allowing him to get a few extra minutes of rest before the inevitable ring of the alarm.

But all good things must come to an end, and soon enough, the boy is pulled from his slumber by the loud melody designating the beginning of a new day. With a few displeased groans, the boy finally leaves his bed – not the comfiest in the world, but significantly better than the “mattress on the crates” one he had to use for several months after moving in here.

Most people would be horrified by the idea of being put on probation itself, and yet for Ren, the year he was forced to spend away from home became the beginning of a new, way more satisfying life. Unlike his blood relatives, the people he spent this year with not only did not blame him for standing up for an innocent woman but instead approved his actions and did everything to make his unjustified stay in Tokyo enjoyable. And indeed they managed to do that, and then some – grumpy Sojiro, sarcastic Wakaba, and little orange hurricane known as Futaba became more of a family to him during this year than his actual parents ever were. And for that exact reason, here he is – starting his third year of high school not back in his hometown, but in Tokyo, with a loving family and a warm feeling of acceptance.

Styling his hair in a way that looks chaotic, yet classy, Ren confidently smirks at his reflection. Back at this time last year, he was a terrified country boy thrown into a big city with no support. Now he is a confident and charming young man, and no one at Shujin Academy even remembers the silly rumors that surrounded his sudden arrival anymore.

At the counter, a plate of warm curry and a cup of aromatic coffee awaited him, with their creator preparing for the day somewhere in the kitchen. The boy readily sat down and was savoring the familiar, yet ever delectable flavor, when buzzing in the pocket startled him.

“Are you out yet? There’s a thing I MUST tell u ASAP,” read the message from the most energetic person Ren ever knew – Sakamoto Ryuji, his best friend and partner in trouble-seeking. The black-haired boy decided to type a reply immediately, not risking having Ryuji barge in worrying about his wellbeing.

“Almost done with breakfast. What’s up?”

“OK. Have you heard `bout ‘Metaverse’?” Ren stopped to think for a second. The name itself sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place why.

“I don’t think so? Is that some video game?”

“Duuude. Not ‘some’! It’s, like, the breakthrough of the century! Just Google it, bro, it’s like its own new world or something!”

“That good, huh? Alright, I’ll look it up…” Curiosity started getting better of him, and Ren typed the name in the search engine.

Admittingly, the result of the said search was pretty impressive. Dozens of praise articles were immediately catching attention. And, apparently, the game hasn’t even come out yet… but will today. Was that why Ryuji brought it up? Lost in thought as he was, Ren didn’t even notice the flash of ginger materializing behind him.

“O-ho… is that what I think it is? Hey, Ren, you wanna know more about Metaverse?” the cheery voice of a young girl came from behind Ren’s shoulder.

“Morning, Futaba,” the boy turned around to greet little force of nature with a smile. “Ryuji seemed awfully excited about this game, so I wanted to check it out.”

“Say no more, my humble child! I’ll reveal everything to you on our way to the Temple of Trials!” grinning, the girl left the café as quickly as she entered it. On the way to school, then? Sounds fair. The boy nodded and hurried to finish his meal.

“You still here?” disapproving grumbling came from the kitchen, and after a moment, Sojiro was standing in front of the children, all folded hands and unamused glare. “You’re not planning to repeat that whole ‘getting lost in a castle on the way to school’ thing, are you? It’s not going to work the second time, you know.”

He won’t let it go, will he? So what if Ren trusted Ryuji to know his shortcuts, and they ended up at some medieval-styled festival on his first day in Shujin? At least it was fun, and it’s not like they missed any vital material… well, whatever. “I know,” the boy nodded, and then smirk blossomed on his face. “I’m not so lame to use the same trick twice.”

“Well, as long as you don’t cause me trouble,” Sojiro chuckled and waved towards the exit, “Now, scram.”

Ren hastily picked up his bag and left the café. Impatient Futaba immediately appeared next to him, and they moved out to the train station. As promised, she explained the details about “Metaverse” to him on the way. Apparently, it was a revolutionary MMORPG in virtual reality with ultra-realistic graphics and use of an advanced AI that makes the game behave in unique ways: NPCs’ act almost indistinguishably from real humans, size of the game world is estimated to be comparable to our actual planet’s size (although, as Futaba added, 70% of it are wildlands that aren’t going to be easily accessible to players for quite a while), and depending on player’s personality and actions system can offer them unique opportunities, such as new scenarios, quests, skills, and who-knows-what-else. Additionally, although she has no details, Futaba found out that her mother’s latest research is in some way related to this game, which is why little troublemaker “added” herself to the beta-testers and has been wandering around in this game for a month already. Which, in turn, meant that until boys left the starting area, she wouldn’t be of much help to them.

Well, after hearing the girl’s excited explanation, it wasn’t hard to see why people would be so thrilled to play this game. If it was at least half as good as she said, it surely would be a compelling experience. Of course, Ren was planning to try the game out anyway: how could he not, when both of his closest friends are so enthusiastic about it? Admittingly, it was hard to argue the appeal of such a detailed, complex world, but at the same time… it felt somewhat weird. The creation of such an intricate game must have required lots of resources and usage of complicated and uncommon technologies, so why waste it on entertainment instead of something more functional? Excuse him for not believing for a second that people with such assets would be so selfless to spend them on making others happy.

And just like that, discussing the details of Metaverse, they arrived at Aoyama-Itchome station, met up with Ryuji, and were on their way to Shujin. Upon arriving at school, the group had to split, promising to meet up after classes end and go to Akihabara to get Ren and Ryuji their copies.

Overall, the school day was unsurprisingly uneventful. However, Ren heard quite a few people whispering about the Metaverse, including, unexpectedly, Ann and her best friend, Shiho. Despite being classmates, Ren wasn’t exactly close to Ann. They were on friendly terms as the girl was among the people not bothered by rumors surrounding him back when he started at Shujin, but that’s all. They studied together a few times, but without having many common interests, they mostly went their separate ways. Still, seeing as girls were also seemingly planning to try the Metaverse out, Ren couldn’t help but wonder if they would meet in the game and if it would be best to team up in that case.

Finally, the classes were over, and the trio hurried up to reach Akiba as soon as possible. Evidently, that wasn’t soon enough, since the queue to the shop was already impressively long.

“Dang it!” Ryuji’s mood got much worse at this turn of events. “I promised mom to get home early, but this crowd will take forever to get through…”

Ren nodded gloomily in agreement. He knew the game was going to be popular, but this many people? He didn’t even warn Sojiro about being late! While thinking up the ways to avoid the old man’s righteous wrath born from worry, Ren was suddenly distracted by Futaba’s victorious exclamation, “You’re lucky I came with, you know! It’s time I used my secret ultra move: Beta-tester’s Privilege!” 

Having said that, the redhead suddenly grabbed the boys’ hands and firmly walked towards the entrance. Releasing bewildered boys, she took out her phone and shown something on it to the cashier, “It says here that as beta-tester, I have the priority in anything Metaverse-related, so I demand copies for those two noobs right now!”.

The cashier looked at her phone and handed out copies with a sigh. “Maybe next time, don’t shove other customers aside so rudely, young lady… Have a nice day.”

With quite a few annoyed stares on their backs, the trio finally left the store with their copies of the game. According to the whispers in the crowd, many people here knew nothing about the game itself but decided to buy it because of some idol’s recommendation. Something about it being a good stress relief and excellent help with the studies, apparently?

“So, uh, how much do we owe you?” Ryuji asked after they left the area.

“Eh, don’t worry about it. I paid from this guy’s card anyway. He still had tons of money from the last year’s part-timing. What are you, a dragon sitting on his treasure?” the girl scolded the raven-haired boy, who just shrugged unapologetically. It’s not that he was keeping this money on purpose. He just enjoyed working at those places, and the pay was mostly an afterthought. As there wasn’t much he really needed, all this money just, sort of, stacked up. Honestly, it might be a good thing Futaba decided to use it, or else the metaphorical stash might have just stayed untouched for eternity.

After reassuring Ryuji that he indeed doesn’t have to return the money unless he absolutely feels the need to, Ren and Futaba parted ways with the blond and returned home. It was the time to finally unpack this game and see for himself if it’s as good as everyone was saying. Well, to be fair, with Futaba’s positive review Ren was 99% sure that the game must really be outstanding, but the point stands.

“Wait, if this is such an ultra-realistic game, how come I don’t need some fancy equipment like the capsule or whatever?” with this sudden realization, the boy turned to Futaba with a questioning expression on his face.

“So, I take it you didn’t check your balance yet? That box wasn’t that expensive for having only the game itself in it!” the girl answered, but seeing the complete lack of understanding on Ren’s face, added, “They kinda just invented their own equipment for this game, so it comes with the copy. Still don’t really get how they managed to pack all those functions in such a small device, but it’s impressive. It’s like… the little elastic headphone-like thingy that you can wear even in your sleep, and it sends signals all over your body when necessary, so all senses work just like in reality.”

That explanation certainly made some sense, even though it still sounded a tad too convenient – but then again, maybe he’s just getting paranoid. Anyway, Ren finally went to unpacking the game, and indeed, there wasn’t the usual disk or something of that kind. Instead, the box contained the described earlier by Futaba device, instructions, and some sensors, apparently used for calibration when first launching the game. According to those instructions, you could still play the game without using them and giving too much of your personal information, but that would mean mostly disabling your senses during the gameplay, turning the game into your average quickly sickening VR experience. It also seemed like something called “skills’ backward compatibility” wouldn’t be available either… not entirely comprehending the meaning of the last part, Ren turned to Futaba for an explanation.

“Basically, if access to your senses is on, you can sort of… translate some skills you learn in-game to reality. The reverse is always true, but this exact thing is the first. It’s like… in normal VR-games, you can train a bit by moving when your character does. Metaverse does it for you… kinda. You don’t really move, but it sends signals, and your muscles work on their own. So theoretically, if you learn how to use your in-game bow without saying the name of the skill, then when you pick up a bow in reality, you might actually be able to shoot something. Doesn’t work with magic, though… but still useful! I can actually do some exercising now without dropping dead after!” having dropped all that information on the unsuspecting boy, Futaba proudly grinned. “Short version: just use the sensors. It’s not like anyone in those big companies needs your measurements… and if they try to do something weird with them, their servers go down in no time, hehe.”

Finally giving up on trying to understand all the complicated details, Ren started putting on the sensors. The simplest ones were literally just gloves and socks with bumps on them. Most of the other ones had to be manually placed at their places precisely by instruction. Thankfully, none of those had to go anywhere indecent, so with Futaba’s experienced help, he was able to equip all of them on the first attempt.

“Well, you finally ready for your first trip to the new world! They grow so fast…” she took a dramatic pause before continuing, “Good luck setting everything up. My nickname is Alibaba, so PM me when you can. I might just give you some tips on Noobland.” With her words ringing in his ears, Ren’s world slowly faded to nothingness.

* * *

Somewhere in the Metaverse, a young paladin in white armor approached another beta-tester. “It seems that this elimination quest has some unexpected bug to it. Seeing how the game is due to be released, it probably would be best to report is as soon as possible, right? But I’m worried that the problem was on my end. Would you mind checking with me?” with a sweet and shy smile, the boy asked the man in front of him.

“Sure, lead the way. And relax, kid. You must be new to this, but this testing thing isn’t that big of a deal,” with a reassuring smile, the man patted the boy on the shoulder.

“Oh, but the location we need is quite far from this place. It might be best for you to set your spawn point in this village, in case the bug does happen again… it did send me to respawn, at least,” looking genuinely apologetic, the boy waved to the closest spawn point. Seeing how his proposal was pretty reasonable, the man did exactly what he said. The blue light of the portal shone right behind him as he hurried back to his new companion and disappeared before the man could turn around to notice it.

“I’m all ready. Let’s go, kid…” weird sensation pierced through the man’s body, and he barely stayed on his feet. “Sorry, I guess I should’ve taken more breaks… well, I’ll just rest after helping you, that’s all.”

The boy’s voice suddenly lost all its former liveliness. “Indeed, you will,” having said that, the boy turned around and, to man’s immediate shock, pulled out a gun.

 _Isn’t this supposed to be the fantasy world? Is it real?_ The thoughts anxiously swarmed through the man’s head as the trigger was pulled. As usual, the avatar disappeared into thin air. With no expression on his face, the boy put the gun back into his inventory and calmly waited for the light to announce the man respawn. When the man finally appeared at the spawn point after the usual delay, panicked, in his trousers, and ready to shout some gibberish at his assailant, the boy finally gave the go-ahead.

“Perhaps using the personal information of the players for your own entertainment wasn’t your best idea, sir. He doesn’t approve of the excessive initiative, after all... Now, take care of him.” With those words, the boy logged out, while nameless, faceless shadows pounced at the frightened man, tearing at him until he lost all of his sense of reality.


	2. Unexpected assistance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mysterious little girl offers her help with the surprisingly complicated process of character creation, simultaneously dropping hints about the bigger picture Ren can't quite see yet.   
> The weird cat-like NPC who claimes to be a human stuck in the game world threatens his way into the team and makes up for it by helping the boys meet up with each other amidst the hundreds of new players.  
> Wakaba Isshiki makes a necessary decision.

The progress bar was slowly reaching closer to being full as the world around Ren started lazily lighting up until he was standing inside the sphere of soothing blue. This place couldn’t even be called a room – it was just an empty space with no direction to go in or landmark to remember.

“Thank you for your patience,” the soft and calming voice of a young girl suddenly filled the room, dissolving the oppressing feeling of emptiness that came with the darkness. “Welcome to the Metaverse, dear guest. My name is Lavenza, and I’m here to assist you with your first experience in this world.”

A small form of a girl, no older than twelve, slowly materialized in front of Ren. She wore a blue dress, a cute headband with butterfly wings decorated her long silver hair, but the most enchanting of it all were her eyes – their bright gold, almost glowing in the dim blue light of the room, was piercing through the boy, as if staring straight inside his soul. And yet, it did not feel intrusive or malicious. On the contrary, something inside Ren knew that this mysterious girl is the one person he doesn’t have to think what to say to, that she already knows every “him” and sees right through any mask he may craft. Somehow, that thought was calming. Even if the girl turns out to be just an AI designed to make new players feel relaxed when they take the first step in the world of Metaverse, surely her presence imitates something real; surely, there must be an actual person who can make him feel at ease just like this little piece of code is able to.

The kind but insistent voice pulled the boy out of his thoughts. “Now, would you mind introducing yourself so that we can move on to your avatar’s creation?”. Funny, Ren never thought AI could sound so genuinely impatient. Unless this is a real person? In which case, there must be a lot of such assistants to be able to serve every single new player on the release day… no, that’s pretty much impossible. Then this must be the first glimpse of the touted “advanced AI” that is supposed to be indistinguishable from the actual human being. If so – well, he has to give them that. It worked way better than he was expecting. Had he not known from the beginning that he was in a virtual world, he would’ve never guessed that this girl could be anything but human. Is this how robots are going to take over humanity? Ah, his thoughts stray from the topic again. Lavenza smiled as if aware of his musings. Scary, but it’ll have to do.

“I’m Ren. Amamiya Ren, that is, although I doubt you need my surname…”. He finally introduced himself - a bit clumsily, but the girl didn’t seem to mind. If anything, she looked relieved by his honesty.

“Nice to meet you, Ren. Now we can proceed to the next step. It might sound weird, but please don’t worry: anything you say will stay between us, and not even developers can overhear our discussion!” the girl giggled at Ren’s alarmed expression and explained, “I need you to tell me as much as you can about yourself. As I already mentioned, this place is strictly confidential, and whatever happens here is accessible to no one but the Metaverse itself. Feel free to speak of anything your heart desires. After all, this information is going to shape your journey.”

Now that sounds pretty weird. How is any information about his life supposed to be reflected in a game without disclosing anything personal? Unconvinced, he asked Lavenza, “Before I start opening my heart, do you mind explaining what exactly does this ‘shaping my journey’ mean?”

And again, instead of any sign of displeasure, Ren finds only an entertained look on the girl’s face. “Not the most trusting person, are you? That alone can determine some paths as more suitable for you than others. Essentially, my job as the assistant is to translate your life and personality into the Metaverse. Say, you were always fascinated with supernatural phenomena – in that case, magical classes would be a better fit. If you are deeply religious, you might find yourself in favor of one of this world’s gods. If you’re an avid traveler, you can receive some special cartography skills at the start – a pretty decent advantage over other players, nothing game-breaking, a simple reward for your real-life achievements. Of course, it works the other way too: if you decide to hide things or lie about them, you won’t get punished, but the result may end up pretty unsatisfactory. In the end, it would be only beneficial to you to be honest with me. Obviously, to avoid people trying to cheat the system by changing their story on the go to get certain abilities, you will not know the result of analysis until you start the game.” At that moment, Lavenza paused, as if deep in thought, before continuing, “And as always, you have an option to refuse. In that case, well… the process is pretty similar to any regular character creation in the average video game. But, of course, no access to hidden options would be granted, only the basic selection. So, your choice?”

It was pretty evident that the developers wanted to play on the customer’s want to be special. After all, that is the reason most people play games – to escape the boring reality and become the hero in shining armor. At the same time, he could see how the somewhat random nature of the result would discourage a lot of result-oriented players from even partaking in such a lottery. Still, the very idea of a thorough analysis turning his entire life into traits of his avatar made Ren incredibly curious. He wasn’t a big fan of spilling his guts to anyone, least of all to a most likely non-existent child he met a few minutes ago. Still, the pure interest - and a bit of nostalgia for some RPGs he used to play in his childhood that had a similar tactic of making the player answer the questionaries to determine their preferred playstyle - kept him going. Surprisingly – or, perhaps, not so much, seeing how her presence itself was making him more relaxed than he’s been around most people in his life – he found himself actually relaying most of his life to Lavenza, including things he didn’t even share with Sojiro nor Futaba or Ryuji. The girl didn’t interrupt him once, neither she was asking any questions. She simply stood there listening, unmoving and frail in the blue light, almost doll-like – which, if she is indeed an AI, wouldn't be far from the truth.

When he finished, feeling the weight falling off his shoulders, with a heart lighter than at any point since his arrest, Lavenza finally spoke again. “The Metaverse has heard you. Do you wish to proceed on a path you created, or would you prefer to choose from one of the predetermined options? This is your final warning. There would be no going back on this choice.”

A bit surprised by the sudden change of tone from a previously quite friendly girl, Ren confidently answered her with the same formality she seemed to carry in her question. “Yes, I want to see the consequences of my actions, be it for better or for worse.”

Something shook up the space around them, and bright cracks of light started spreading through what could probably be considered the walls of this place with no entrance or exit. The serious look yet again replaced by a kind smile, Lavenza turned to the boy, “This would normally be our goodbye… but there is one more offer I wish to extend to you.”. With those words, the cracks threatening to shatter whichever kind of room they were in froze, stopped by some invisible force. “This time, there are no strings attached. The following offer is made to one random person out of every ten thousand of new players, which means that you are the sixth one to receive it. Now, choose the gift you wish to receive as a symbol of your luck: pet, mount, or skill? Every option is a unique and reasonable powerful resource that will scale with your progress in one way or another.”

If the previous dubious offer was fast to find a positive response in his heart, then this one not only visibly confused Ren but also was met with definite resistance somewhere inside him. “Thanks, but I’m fine.”

“You mean… you refuse the gift?” the girl had a childishly unbelieving, shocked expression on her face, which was pretty cute considering her mature attitude earlier. “Would you explain your reasoning for coming to such a decision, then?”

“If I have to explain…” he thought about it for a bit before continuing, “The pet or the mount would require care and attention, and not only I’m not exactly confident I’ll be a frequent visitor in this world, but I’m just plain awful at taking care of things. I mean, the only pet I ever had was a dying plant in my room, and it only needed nutrients once in a while to survive. I can’t even feed myself something proper most of the time, and I doubt this VR-Tamagotchi likes canned food… so yeah, no. And skill – you said it’s going to get better with me, but I can’t imagine something not battle-related strengthening properly, while battle skills I’m going to have more than enough, anyway. In the end, I don’t really need any of those. Thanks for the offer, but I refuse.”

Lavenza stared at him for a bit, as if trying to find any insincerity in his answer. Finally, she nodded, satisfied, and a smile – not the calm and kind one from before, but a mischievous little smirk – blossomed on her face. “Now I can understand why Master chose you… If that is your decision, then I shall not hold you any longer. I only wish we managed to reach out to him, too, before it was too late.” The last sentence was said in a much quieter voice, almost regretfully. Still, before Ren could begin questioning who she was talking about, the girl made it clear that the conversation was over, “Until we meet again, my Trickster.” And with those mysterious words still in the air, the sphere finally shattered, blinding Ren with sudden bright light coming from all directions at once and none in particular. When he finally opened his eyes again, Lavenza was, unsurprisingly, nowhere to be found. For some reason, he felt like the wind was carrying the gentle whisper in it, “Never forget, there is always more than one way, even if it’s a hard one…”

Shaking his head and still pretty much stunned by this unusual introduction – but then again, nothing about this game so far was “usual” – Ren finally took in his surroundings. He had to admit, the view was impressive. Seems like it wasn’t just a marketing move when they advertised the game as ultra-realistic. Everything, from the blindingly bright sunlight to the dirt creaking under his boots, was impossible to differentiate from their real counterparts. Honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if video game photography became an official thing since the screenshot made in this world could easily compete with many beautiful views from the reality.

Ren was standing in the middle of a field, as one by one, new people appeared all around. Apparently, that was how your arrival in this world looked to the bystander. No bright light or flashes of otherworldly portals – you weren’t there, and then you were. “I guess it’s not surprising,” he thought, “It’s not like anyone cares much about this sort of thing anyway, so they had no need to make it flashy.”

To be fair, considering entrancingly beautiful surroundings, creating any special effects for players’ entrance would be just a waste of resources. From what Ren could see, most people around him were looking around with a stunned expression for quite a while upon their arrival, and by the time they finally managed to process it all, they couldn’t care less about the lack of effects on others.

But enchanting views aside, there was a more pressing matter. How was he supposed to find Ryuji with this many people around? Especially since Ren had no idea what the character creation turned him into. If those weird-looking people he has seen a few times in the crowd were of any indication, his friend could have easily ended up utterly unrecognizable in his new form.

But speaking of avatars – the curiosity finally outweighed the initial astonishment by Metaverse, and Ren decided to see what the AI of this world made of his introduction. The character menu opened as soon as he quietly called for it – according to Futaba, he will soon enough get used to operating menus with a mere thought, but for now, the plain old voice commands were good enough, in his opinion.

Like in every RPG ever, the menu had a little 3D-model of his avatar and stats next to it.

Name: not chosen – interesting how choosing a nickname wasn’t a part of character creation. He wonders if that was just some weird decision on the developer’s part or if there was some meaning to this. Well, at least for that exact reason, the starting field wasn’t filled with nicknames – the number of people in that place already made it hard to focus, but if there were also floating words? It would become hell.

Race: Changeling. Now that sounded interesting. He never was too profoundly into D&D, if only because back in his hometown, no one had much interest in it, and attempting to get someone to try it out would probably be more trouble than it’s worth. So – although the name of the race sounded vaguely familiar, he couldn’t remember any details. That was disappointing, but not too troublesome – he can just search for info after logging out—no big deal. Seeing how the game wasn’t necessarily adhering to any pre-existing rules, it probably had its own take on races, too, anyway. That, in turn, meant that Metaverse’s own forum would be more helpful… at some point. Since as of right now, everyone (aside from beta-testers, but those people probably had some restrictions regarding sharing information with average players) was in the same boat of knowing nothing and experiencing everything for themselves.

Race bonuses:

+1 Charisma (passive skill) – increases the chance of getting rare quests and unique information, as well as overall attractiveness for most NPCs by 1% (1/10)

+1 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence on every level up. According to Futaba, the number of points you get on level-up could be increased in several ways but was still limited. Ren doubted he would have to worry about reaching that limit anytime soon, but having a few extra points was always a pleasant thing.

Next up were the stats themselves. Not very impressive yet, he had to admit, but that’s solvable. For now, he had a basic 5 in Strength, Will, Endurance and Luck, and 6 in Dexterity and Intelligence. Seems like race bonuses were auto-applied at the first level too. Ren decided not to spend the three extra points he had until he decides on class and playstyle.

By mentally flipping the page of the window, he got access to the skill trees – still locked for the lack of chosen class – as well as his currently equipped active and each learned passive skill. The lonely view of a single race-gifted passive was sad and utterly unimpressive, but knowing games like this, it was unlikely to stay that way for long. The separate panel on the bottom was meant to contain unique skills – the kind you wouldn’t dare to forget, like normal active, for the lack of teacher to relearn it from. Having those was definitely useful since you could learn them without looking out for your limit of active skills. But, obviously, one was extremely unlikely to get one of there – there was a small chance of learning it as a reward from a rare quest or getting a scroll for it in a high-level dungeon, but that’s it.

Buried deep in the menus, the boy did not notice a small figure approaching him. The child-sized figure gently touched him with its limb, then, seeing no reaction from the boy, a bit rougher. When that too went unnoticed, the figure let out the annoyed mewl and called out to Ren. “Oi! You, Frizzy-hair! Stop ignoring me!”

Ren finally closed the menus and started looking around. Then, his gaze dropped to find a mascot-looking feline creature staring at him with big blue eyes. “And what are you supposed to be?” Ren said uncertainly. How was he even supposed to react to this thing? Was it a newbie player like him who was unlucky enough to get a cat as his race? Is that even a thing here? Or was it just some sort of tutorial NPC? Come to think of it, other players didn’t seem to react to his weird companion.

“I’m Morgana! And stop looking so puzzled – you should be honored that my Master sent me to assist you even though you refused his gifts!”

“Master? Wait, are you talking about the offers Lavenza made? I did refuse, so why are you here? I said I don’t need a pet…”

Morgana hissed, obviously displeased with Ren’s choice of words. “I’m not some kind of pet cat, you moron! And it’s my duty to look out for you now, whether or not you agree to it. Moreover, the help of someone as experienced and knowledgeable as me is definitely going to benefit an amateur like you!” The cat(?) proudly crossed his paws, awaiting the boy’s decision and, no doubt, expecting no rejection of his generous offer.

To be fair, Ren was an amateur. And if this cat really was sent by Lavenza’s higher-ups, then it could be quite useful…

“Okay. Fine. You can tag along, but I still need to find my friend first, and if he has a problem with you, you’re on your own.”

Morgana made an unimpressed sound but had no further objections, while Ren’s mind returned to the question of how to find Ryuji in this crowd.

“So – what’s your friend like?” The feline asked after a few minutes of pointless walking around.

“Well, in reality, he has a short bleached hair, brown eyes, and walks with a bit of a slump, but I have no idea if that applies to Metaverse- Wait. Do you even know about ‘reality’ I came from?”

“Of course, I do! I’m a player too, you know! Well, I was… I don’t remember much, but something bad happened, and Master had to turn me into this form to save me. And I can’t leave now, either… But with all the potential they saw in you – I’m sure I’ll be able to recover my true form if I work with you!” Morgana was chattering passionately, and his explanation put Ren deep in thought. If what his cat-like companion was saying was true – it didn’t exactly sound believable, but it’s not like anything about this world was normal, so he wouldn’t exclude the possibility – then helping Morgana would be the right thing. However, it might just end up as a deadly dangerous adventure. But, well, Ren was never the one to get scared off by risk.

“Oh, and even though this form is uncomfortable and ridiculous… it has its advantages. I might just be able to help you find your friend. Press ‘Yes’ when prompted, alright?”

Before Ren could ask what exactly Morgana was planning on doing, the window popped up in front of him. ‘Do you wish to make Morgana your familiar?’ <Yes/No>

It’s not like he had anything to lose from it, right? The boy pressed ‘Yes’ without hesitation, curious as to what the feline’s ‘plan’ was.

“Wow, and how do you even get along with this blond monkey? I guess he’s not TOO bad, but how can someone even be such an idiot? He’s like an over-excited dog… No, I’m not a cat, so it has nothing to do with it!” Self-proclaimed not-a-cat was murmuring quietly over something and hissed at Ren’s amused look after his dog remark.

“So… What exactly are you doing, Morgana?” The boy inquired.

“Well, I kind of… Read your memories? Some of them, at least. Mostly faces, emotions, and associations with them. It’s a special feature for pet AIs, to make them more in sync with their owners and all… and since most of them are just the dumb pieces of code, it’s completely safe, and no one will know what they found. But I’m a human, so I can actually make use of this information besides standard ‘friend-foe’ recognition and adjusting to your feelings about stuff. Like now – I know this Ryuji boy’s looks and personality, and I might just be able to find him using my exceptional skills.”

The cat – now looking like an actual cat rather than the mascot thing, which certainly worked well with his familiar-pet disguise – slowly closed his eyes and started moving his ears, as if trying to locate the source of a specific sound. After a while, Morgana nodded, satisfied, hopped on Ren’s shoulder, and proudly announced, “I found him. Am I great or what, Ren?”

With his pseudo-pet’s guidance, Ren swiftly moved through the crowd, until the familiar blond head came into view. Seems like, at least this time, teaming up with Morgana was a good idea.

From the looks of it, Ryuji already managed to get his hands on a quest – or he just decided to help an NPC out of the goodness of his heart. Whichever it was, when Ren and Morgana came, he was just finishing digging up the beds in the garden of some kind-looking old lady. After the grandma stopped showering his friend with thanks, Ren finally came out of the conveniently placed giant tree’s shadow to greet him.

To his surprise, Ryuji actually seemed startled by his appearance. “Whoa, dude! How long have you been here? I didn’t see you at all! And you look so pale too… What are you, a vampire?”

Ren tilted his head questioningly. Looking closely, his hands did seem paler than usual, although nothing else stroke him as odd when he was checking out the 3D model in the menu… come to think of it, weren’t changelings supposed to look odder by default? Oh well, maybe he hasn’t unlocked this ability yet or something, and the game was merciful enough to let him look as human as possible from the beginning.

Speaking of which – “Nah, I’m a changeling, apparently. No idea where the System got that from, but I’m okay with it. And what are you, a giant? I don’t remember you being that tall this morning” – or that muscular, by the way. Ryuji was always athletic and nice to look at, but whatever adjustments the game did, it made him look even better. Ren was trying hard not to be rude with staring, but damn. It was hard.

Ryuji looked down, embarrassed. “Yeah, I’m not used to this yet, either. I’m a goliath – don’t know what that means aside from stat bonuses and physical build, though. Guess we’ll have to hit the library later together, huh?” The blond chuckled, before moving his gaze to his friend’s shoulder. “Wait. What’s that? A cat? Did you just randomly pick up a stray or something?”

“Took you long enough to notice, you moron!” Morgana hissed, before remembering Ren’s earlier warning and continuing in a more leveled tone, “I’m Morgana, and I’m not a cat!”

After relaying to Ryuji the events before their reunion, with only a few disbelieving stares and angry hisses from respective sides, everyone caught up onto each other situations, and they finally were ready to discuss their next steps, before it dawned on Ren.

“Wait, so… how do I choose the nickname?” Ren asked, staring at the “LightningBonk” floating on top of Ryuji’s head.

The blond broke into a smile. “And here I thought it was all part of your plan! You just kinda… think it up, then say aloud something like ‘my name is something-something,’ and the system will ask for confirmation, in case you didn’t really mean it as a nickname. Did you skip tutorial or something?”

Come to think of it, maybe there was some small window with basic explanations, which he closed without looking when Morgana started bugging him. Oh well. At least he didn’t make a fool of himself by walking out of the starting location without a nickname… yet. It might be a good idea to think about one now unless he wants to risk forgetting about it and actually being viewed as an idiot. At that, the boy dived into his head, trying to choose something fitting.

***

Wakaba Isshiki slowly and quietly opens the door to her daughter's room. The girl appears to be sound asleep, but the hint of the black cable in her hair shows that her mind is as active as ever, venturing through the depths of Metaverse. It's almost ironic, really, that she will never know that this world is basically her sibling, both of them being born from a love of their mother, although only one of those children is protected from their father's malice. But Futaba needn't know about that. She needn't know about his identity. She needn't know the truth about Metaverse. And she certainly needn't know about things her mother did in the name of science.

Wakaba regrets that, of course. All those coma cases with seemingly nothing leading up to them would never happen if not for her research. All of those people with out-of-nowhere "panic attacks" and "rage incidents," labeled unstable and getting themselves and others hurt because of an unnoticeable powerful impulse, would never have to deal with undeserved blame for things they were led to do. And that boy — once visibly scared but determined, now with probably irreversibly broken emotions, having to shatter his own feelings to be able to control others' minds, all for the sake of some old power-hungry maniac.  
She regrets it, but there is no going back now. Never been, to be honest — the moment you involve yourself with that man, you either abide by his rules or never get found. Now, with Metaverse open to the public, the consequences of her mistakes are going to grow in geometric progression, and when they reach critical mass — it's all over. She fears to imagine what the world would turn into if his plans come to fruition. And that is precisely why, even though she definitely wouldn't be able to leave unscathed, Wakaba is determined to sabotage his plans while it's not too late. Conducting all those experiments, while horrible in itself, allowed her to gain a fraction of control over Metaverse. It may not be enough to stop his plans completely — but even the smallest help she could give might be what will allow the fight to continue when the time comes.

She has to hurry. With the knowledge she has, it wouldn't surprise her if he made an order to take care of her as soon as possible when the game goes public. She wouldn't put it past his paranoia to expect some kind of retaliation from her, either. And that is why she has to act as quick and discreet as humanly possible.

She regrets a lot of things. But something she regrets the most is that she most likely won't even have a chance to say goodbye to her daughter. She remembers the conversation she had with Sojiro a few weeks ago. The stupid, half-joking remark about her impending doom — she wonders if that would be enough for him to figure out what happened. She wonders if he and Ren will be able to protect Futaba and not let her fall too deep into the grief. She thinks about a lot of mostly meaningless now things while mentally preparing for what is likely to become her last battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to update this at least once every one-two weeks, but it might turn out difficult... My university still can't figure out how to have distance seminars (although they had no problem in switching lectures to video-format), and even with copying my groupmates' classwork, it still takes longer to understand than I'd like. I still prefer this over spending ~5 hours in public transport for half a week (we were given a choice whether to attend labs and seminars or stay at home completely), though.  
> Speaking of which - programming labs add to the challenge since my group somehow ended up having the strictest teacher of them all. She demands ~four versions of the program for every lab and asks tough questions... The teachers from the first two semesters were taking one look at the specification, checked if the program worked, and that was enough. Now? I have no idea what she'll want, and it's scary. Well, our group will either die or become really good, I guess.  
> What I mean to say - at least until the situation with studies stabilizes, it might be tough for me to find the time to write. I apologize for any possible delays.
> 
> This chapter is inspired by our first Differential Equations lecture. I kid you not, I was stuck in the middle of the chapter, and this lecture gave me so much motivation and inspiration for some reason...


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